You Go Girl!

How Not To Be A Hoarder...

Hahahaha!  Fabric packs are all sold and will be heading out the door on Monday. Thanks for helping me take control of my hoarding tendencies. Fabric is good therapy. ;-)

  The shelves of love are overflowing with fabric, friends. I've devised a plan to purge. Here's how it works:

• I've packed at least ONE pound of fabric in a mailing envelope. One pound = 3+ yards of fabric.
• Fabric is all %100 cotton quilt weight. 
• Most pieces are 1/2 yard and one yard cuts. Smallest pieces are roughly the size of fat quarters.
• Fabric was packed randomly. It's fun to be surprised. Try it.
• Each envelope will sell for $5. FIVE DOLLARS!! THREE yards for $5. Crazy good sale.

Look at all the lovely fabric that is packed up and ready to head out the door. There aren't any undesirable fabric clunkers hidden in the stacks. I promise. 

Head on over to my You Go Girl shop and snag one NOW. You'll be glad you did. 

Elfing

Elfing /el ving/ 

verb

1) Making something lovely for someone you love, especially for Christmas

2) The act of being elf like

I have been elfing. A lot. I think my ears might be getting pointy. How 'bout you? Wait a second. That sounds like I am asking if you think your ears are getting pointy. Or perhaps it seems like I was asking if you think my ears are getting pointy. I wasn't really asking either one of those questions. Let me try again. How about you? Have you been elfing? I hope so.

In the Mail...

Have I ever told you how much I love making these little felt ornaments? I'm pretty sure I have. Making ornaments sure beats the pants off my most recent project...altering a costume for the Nutcracker.Yuck!

Slippery synthetic fabric and alterations=MISERY

I think I would rather gouge my eye out with my scissors. In fact, I almost did. Fear not. I am done with the alterations and I still have both my eyes. Yay and yippee!

Now back to my little felties...I loved every minute of making them. They went in the mail to Canada earlier this week. I think they will be happy living together in a sparkly Christmas tree up north. I had a little trouble parting with Foxie Loxie, but I said my goodbyes and put her in the mail with the others. I think I heard her sniffle a little when I was wrapping her in tissue paper. Oh, wait. That might've been me. I have another little fox part way stitched. I wonder if she will make it on my tree this year. My make-it-before-Christmas list is pretty long, but maybe...

An Owl To Call My Own...

I've been busy making some felt ornaments for an Etsy order. One of the ornaments requested was an owl. Let me just say that I LOVE Jessica Levitt's owl pattern. Those little owls started my whole love affair with felt. Her pattern was my go-to for owls.  If you look down in the corner of the pattern, however, you will see a little copyright and a request for the consumer to use the pattern for personal use only. I am assuming this means you shouldn't use her pattern to make owls to sell. Well, I am a rule follower. ALWAYS. I think it is a part of my genetic code. Sometimes it bites me in the butt. No matter. I follow rules. Since I couldn't use Jessica's pattern,  I got busy crafting a little owl to call my own. After more than a few drawings and a garbage can full of paper rejects, I finally got her just right.Please welcome Miss Betty Lu Hoot, the newest addition to my little felt ornament collection...

What do you think?

Just a little FYI...I get lots of requests for patterns of my felt ornaments. The only pattern I have ready to share is the squirrel. The rest of my little forest friends are rough sketches. I mostly fashion the pieces as I go. Maybe someday I will create a few patterns for sharing, but for now they are not available. So sorry.

A Recycled Doodle

So my thumb still gets angry when I crochet but not when I doodle stitch. Yay for doodle stitching!

I haven't embroidered for so long that when I drew my circles on to my fabric I was a little stumped. What should I stitch? Hmmmmm. I sat for the longest time pondering. It was hurting my brain. Finally I decided that the best way back to doodling would be to enjoy something already tested so I recycled an old pattern and stitched it in a different color. Isn't it weird how a different color changes the design? Recycling...it's a good thing.

Cheers~

Cassie

Up next...I'm going to stitch some felt ornaments. I have a little raccoon and a frisky squirrel all cut out. Can't. Wait.

And one more thing...the last four pillowcases in my shop are marked down to $23 dollars (original price was $30). See them over there in the sidebar. Don't they look lonely? Just saying. :)

A Book Review...Horrorgami

A few weeks ago Running Press sent me a copy of Horrorgami by Chris Marks. The book is loaded with origami projects for Halloween. As the title suggests, there are no paper cranes found in this book. Instead the book is loaded with ghouls, bats, werewolves, witches, zombies and other beastly creatures that go bump in the night. The book cleverly keeps a Halloween theme throughout.

I am new to the art of paper folding. I checked the difficulty scale of each project and chose a One Rat (easy) project, the Friendly Ghost. I followed the clear and concise steps and consulted the Fiendish Symbol key at the front of the book a couple of times. Success. Paper folding completed. A convincing ghost made.

I followed that bit of amazing Horrorgami paper folding with a Two Rat (medium) project, the Beastly Bat. Again, the directions were solid and I had a paper bat at the end of the project. Not a paper bat that I want to show anyone, but a paper bat none the less. I stopped there. I sensed that a Three Rat (difficult) project might be the end of paper folding magic for me.

The projects in this book range in difficulty from One Rat (easy) to Four Rats (fiendish). The most impressive project in the book is a Four Rat Stupefying Spider. It looks amazing, but...well...no. I'm not ready yet. You'll remember from this post that I've only recently conquered the paper snowflake. I'm pretty sure the Stupefying Spider would eat me alive or at least make me have a little tantrum. I think I will eat pie instead.

Mmmmmm...

 

Not For Sissies (or idiots)

Power crocheting is NOT for sissies (or idiots). Some of us learn this the hard way...

First I fell hard for this yarn. Then I fell hard for this Japanese Flower pattern. My original plan was to make a scarf. Said scarf was completed but, ummmm, not so much. The scarf was wearing me instead of the other way around. Try as I might, I could not make the scarf work. But, oh my, did I love those flowers all crocheted together. So I just kept making them, adding them one at a time to my scarf. Slowly my scarf started to take the shape of a blanket. I persisted. The hook was flying every time I had a tiny break in my day. I was a woman on a mission.

Well, I was forty six flowers and several days in to this project when the hand that gripped the flower that I so intently worked on started to feel a little stiff and fatigued. But I am a warrior. I crocheted on. Wait. I should amend that. I am not a warrior. I am an idiot and I crocheted on. I did not listen to what my hand was telling me and now I am paying. I seem to have a repetive motion injury to my thumb and some of the fingers on my left hand. I can barely bend them when morning comes each day. 

Seriously? I have a crochet injury? I thought crocheting was for grannies. NOT. I will say it again... Crocheting is NOT for sissies (or idiots).  I think I will have to put my hook away for now. I sure hope my hand gets better. I also hope that my sewing machine remembers who I am. I need her. :-)

It Feels Funny...

to give this as a gift...

when you are doing a lot of this...

and this...

and this...

and this...

and this...

Oh, summer. I LOVE you. I know you are thinking of making  your exit, but NOT. QUITE. YET. Pleeeease...I need a little more time with you. K?

 

Hey Pinterest...

...I HEART u. I discovered this method of keeping my floss neat and tidy on Pinterest. So nifty.  I liked it so much I pinned it twice without realizing it until I was looking through my Pinterest for the pin. Must be good, I'm thinking. Anyway, I recently loaded up some clothes pins for my next doodle-stitchie adventure. Feeling giddy. Happy day, friends.

 

Proof Positive

If the Mayan calander doesn't give you pause to consider that the world is coming to an end in 2012, maybe this will. I, Cassie Jones, the princess of procrastination, the leader of lame gift giving, the captain of Christmas chaos, have already completed my first handmade-with-love Christmas gift for 2012. This is an unprecedented event, people.

I'm certain it is proof positive that something big is going down. Proof. Positive. 

But if the world really is going to come to an end, which I'm not saying it will, I hope it doesn't happen until December 26th 'cause I REALLY want to give this gift on Christmas morning. That's all. The end. Not the end of the world, but the end of this post.

Oh wait. That's not really the end. One more thing. Yarn details here. Pattern details here. Bye now.